San Bernardino County's population slowly rises to 2.07 million

Births and immigration drove slow to moderate population increases in San Bernardino County and California as a whole, new estimates show.

The Department of Finance released figures Thursday showing San Bernardino County was home to an estimated 2.065 million people as of July. The growth is 0.57 percent greater than one year prior, a net increase of nearly 11,700.

What's more, almost as many people chose to leave San Bernardino County in search of a new home. More than 10,000 people moved away from San Bernardino County, according to the new estimates.

Although the new numbers seem to show the continued effects of a sluggish post-recession economy, long-term forecasts predict the Inland Empire will see substantial population increases over the coming decades.

"We are most definitely the place where people are going to be coming to live in the next 20 years," said Paul Granillo, CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, which is a business advocacy group.

The Southern California Association of Governments, a regional planning agency, published a population forecast earlier this year that anticipates that San Bernardino County's population will grow to about 2.65 million by 2035.

Riverside County is likely to have an even larger population - up from about 2.2 million today to more than 3.3 million in 2035.

Those predictions, Granillo said, spell an eventual revival of construction in the Inland Empire.

He predicted new waves of construction activity will occur along the 15 Freeway from Corona to Lake Elsinore and along the 215 Freeway in the Menifee area, as well the San Gorgonio Pass and ultimately, the High Desert.

San Bernardino County's population dynamics were similar to those for Los Angeles County and California as a whole.

Los Angeles County's population rose by 0.52 percent - about 51,000 people - to roughly 9.9 million people over the 12 months before July 1.

California's population increased by a rate of about 0.7 percent to more than 37.8 million over the same time period.

The Golden State's population increased by a net of nearly 256,000 people.

Natural increase and immigration respectively accounted for roughly 269,000 and 96,000 new Californians.